@love2cheeses The answer is yes, it is cold, warm or hot 
Most of the freshman dorms have radiators. The bedrooms also have windows. The dorms seem to vary from too cold (before they fire up the boilers for the radiators) to pretty warm after the heating system kicks in. Then people open up their windows, and it gets down to a reasonable temp. Also depends on your room mate, if you’re in a double. So, be prepared for just about anything.
DS brought one of those overpriced but useful Dyson fan/heaters with him. I think it was rarely used to heat the room, but for the first few weeks of school, the fan was on full blast.
To experienced parents: what should I do regarding furnishing the common room? I only have one suitemate (my roommate), and we both live very very far away from yale so bringing stuff is out of the question. My parents were surprised that we would be provided a large common room without any basic furniture and made it abundantly clear that they did not want me to pay for any furniture (partly due to financial concerns and also because I wouldn’t be able to lug away the furniture at the end of the year). I’d feel bad if I couldn’t contribute anything to the room and leave my roommate in the lurch, but at the same time I wouldn’t feel right spending my parents’ money on something that’s not absolutely necessary. I’m fine with leaving the common room empty, but my roommate might not. Advice? Thanks in advance.
@debate4ever difficult call. I’ve been telling my kiddo who also has suite mates who aren’t local to purchase wisely as nobody wants to be stuck with bulky furniture later.
Standing lamp, throw rug, couch (or combo fancy field chairs) table, rented refrigerator and microwave seem the essentials. I’ve told him its best each suit mate purchase an item then they can sell or keep at the end of the year. But kiddo has yet to organize so it may be best to wait and see what each of you want to do. Drives us parents crazy but…
My DD was in a 4-person suite and in her case all four desks and chairs were in the common room and that pretty much filled it. They had a connected 4-person suite (the door was always open) and that suite had a futon couch (guess they stuck a desk somewhere in one of the bedrooms. So your common room won’t be empty; you can at least have your desks there; thus somewhere to sit. Maybe see if you can get a cheap beanbag or butterfly chair from Amazon and call it a day; at the end of the year you’ll be able to buy a couch off of a senior for pennies. I tend to agree with your parents; your common room doesn’t have to look like a living room, especially your first year and do not overlook what a pain having lots of stuff at the end of the year will be.
Just a heads up regarding mattress covers (as protection against bedbugs). Bedbugs do nest in mattresses but also in nearby nooks and crannies of the furniture and floorboards. Look in the crevices and screwholes.
How do I know? We bought new furniture for our kiddo this spring. The furniture seller offers free haul away for used mattresses too. Well, they don’t do a good job segregating the old from the new. Bedbugs came in on the new furniture. Something we’re going to be wary about EVERY time we get any future furniture deliveries. That was a costly mistake!
Here is a crib tour of a 2 person suite in Durfee (where Morse freshmen live). These students have a lot of decor items (lanterns and such) but if you notice the basic furniture, they have their desks, a couple of chairs, a couple of lamps, and a simple table. With the two desks in the room, it would be pretty easy to furnish the rest of the suite with a couple of collapsable chairs and keep it minimal. Also, there are services that will pick up and store items over the summer (for a cost) if you and your roommate decide to get something a bit bigger. As @tonymom noted, current students have recommended to my daughter that it is easiest not to share the cost of specific items, but rather divide up who buys what. It makes things much easier at the end of the year, especially if you don’t end up rooming with the same person/group next year.
I think most kids are going to want to have a relatively comfortable place to sit in the common room, if they can afford it. Folding camp chairs can work (and they’re cheap at the end of the summer). If you have access to a car, you can also go to Ikea, or to another big box store to get cheap furniture.
DS will be in an apartment this year, and will have more space than he has had previously. He maintains that for studying and coding on a laptop (and presumably writing essays), nothing beats a bean bag chair.
During the first two year at Yale when my son was in a RC, he very rarely studied in his room.
Most RCs let each student store a chair, lamp and bookshelf over the summer. And one futon per suite.
Most campuses rent a refridgerator/micro combo and deliver and pick up at the end of year. Check the campus website. Umbrella chairs (camping/sports kind). There is an ikea in New Haven. And most students watch tv on their laptops.
Small folding table with different height adjustments can be used as a coffee table or a desk. I got one at Costco last year. I think even Walmart sells them. Get a nice cover for it.
In my son’s freshman year, nobody brought much furniture, because they didn’t have any idea what the common room was going to look like. Or what the dimensions would be. A couple of the boys brought those camping chairs that are being mentioned. But we thought it would be useful to have a futon and a coffee table. We ordered those things and had them delivered to our son once he moved in. The delivery process was eventful and challenging, but the futon was very useful as there were occasional overnight guests, like during the Game. The futon offered guests a place to sleep. Now those pieces belong to my son, but the whole suite can enjoy the benefits.
@Faulkner1897 you can press and roll them too- it just gets much smaller and more air out with the vacuum. It saves so much room in her bins that what took us 2 trips and a pickup truck is now consolidated down to 4 large bins and 3 suitcases.
@debate4ever I know that there is some kind of a Yale Craigslist kind of thing that you can either buy used items from or sell them. Many things are just offered for free. I would suggest a few folding directors chairs maybe from Ikea and a lamp. You can keep an eye out for freebies from other rooms that don’t want them. You can also take an Uber to the local thrift shop (There is a decent goodwill store near the tunnel off of the Merit Parkway). Be wary of used couches from somewhere off of campus. You can also move the end tables from your room out to the main room for side tables and the desk for a console. Be creative. Worse comes to worse, make friends with other rooms that have enough seats for a new friend and be social. We provided the couches and fridge and other furniture for my daughter’s suite because she was the only local one and she spent most of the year at a friends suite anyhow. Its a good excuse to just meet new people.
“Be wary of used couches from somewhere off of campus”
Upthread, I warn parents/students to be wary of used couches on campus too! How we sold one to some unwary freshmen my senior year and its real condition, was immoral. Don’t let your freshmen (guys) buy a couch from an upperclassman – especially if there’s a cute girl doing the selling (which is what we did)!
If you can get one new or slightly used from one of the suitemate’s homes, that’s 100% fine.
@T26E4 Im almost afraid to ask…
We let a group of boys take my daughter’s couch for the summer and they stored theirs in her room instead due to the size. I figured if worse comes to worse, its an Ikea couch and we can buy a new cover. You just never know… ha ha ha.
Just received my complimentary copy of Yale Daily News.
Do any of you parents subscribe? Worth it?
Kinda feel like any “big” stories make it to the storyboards on their app.